Columbus, Ohio - The Ferris State University football team secured
its first road victory in nearly two years with a hard-fought 34-28
Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) triumph
over league newcomer Ohio Dominican on Saturday (Sept. 18)
afternoon at Panther Field.

The Bulldogs built a 28-6 third quarter lead in the first-ever
series' meeting between the two schools, but were forced to stop
the Panthers twice in the final four minutes to pull out the
win.

"The bottom line is we got a win," said FSU head coach Jeff
Pierce. "I'm disappointed we didn't put them away
earlier, but they played hard and it's still nice to get a win when
you have these types of learning experiences.

"It's always tough to win on the road and we were able to pull one
out today despite having some things we need to clean up," he
added.

ODU scored on its first possession of the game as the Panthers
drove 67 yards and Mike Noffsinger found the endzone from 19 yards
out only three minutes into the contest.

However, Ferris answered and took a one-point edge with 1:18 to
play in the opening frame on a 65-yard touchdown pass from junior
quarterback Tom
Schneider to junior receiver Mike
Ryan.

FSU increased its lead to 14-6 as Mike Elias
scooped up a blocked field goal attempts and rambled 75 yards for a
score with 8:29 left in the first half. The lead then grew to
21-6 at the break as Ferris marched 76 yards and Dwayne
Williams plunged in from two yards away with only 30
seconds left until halftime.

The Bulldog lead pushed to 28-6 on Damien
Miller's 17-yard TD catch from Schneider with 9:58 to
play in the third period before the Panthers battled back.

Ohio Dominican cut the lead to 28-14 on Tyler Purcell's 16-yard
scoring pass from Billy Griffin midway thru the third period.
Then, with 6:15 left in the third quarter, the Panthers blocked a
FSU punt and Ronnel Spates ran it back five yards for a score to
make it 28-21.

Ferris answered with a 71-yard drive to take a 34-21 edge with
8:40 remaining on Aaron
Olman's four-yard touchdown blast. The extra
point, however, failed.

ODU drove 70 yards on 12 plays and Mark Nichols reached the
endzone with 4:15 left as the Panthers closed the gap to only six
points.

Following Nichols' TD, the Bulldogs fumbled the ensuing kickoff
and ODU recovered at the FSU 25-yard line. The Bulldog
defense, though, stepped up to the challenge and stopped the
Panthers on four downs, including the final two plays from the
19-yard line.

Ohio Dominican forced the Bulldogs to punt with just over two
minutes to play and took over offensively at midfield. For
the second consecutive week, the Bulldog defense preserved the
win when sophomore cornerback Antwian
Windmon picked off a fourth down pass with only 1:30
remaining, which allowed FSU to run out the clock.

"Our defense won the game for us at the end," Pierce said.
"They did what they had to do in order for us to come out with a
victory."

Schneider paced the Bulldogs offensively by completing 19 of 28
passes for 208 yards and two scores. Williams led FSU in
rushing with 60 yards on nine carries while Schneider contributed
38 yards on nine attempts. Miller caught a team-high three
balls for 29 yards.

Meanwhile, ODU's Griffin completed 23 of 46 passes for 193
yards, but was sacked three times and intercepted twice by the
Bulldog defense. Tyler Maddox made six catches for 67 yards
and Noffsinger carried the ball 13 times for 50 yards.

Ferris was hampered by three lost fumbles, a blocked punt, two
missed field goals, a dropped pass in the endzone and a missed
extra point in the contest.

However, FSU rolled up a season-high 412 yards of total offense
with 204 yards rushing to go with 208 in the air via a balanced
attack. The Bulldogs also netted 23 first downs compared
to 15 for the Panthers, who totaled 223 yards offensively.
FSU limited ODU to only 30 rushing yards on 22 attempts.

Matt
Ryan totaled 13 tackles, one sack, a tackle for loss
and forced fumble in spearheading the Bulldog defense.
Windmon chipped in with six stops, including five solo hits, and a
pass breakup in addition to the interception.

The road win was FSU's first since a 31-24 league victory at
Indianapolis two seasons ago (Oct. 11, 2008).

FSU improves to 2-1 overall with the win and remains unbeaten in
conference play at 2-0 after Saturday's triumph. ODU fell to
0-2 overall and in conference action.

The Bulldogs return home to host the Tiffin Dragons on Saturday,
Sept. 25, with the league "kids Night" kickoff set for 7 p.m. (EDT)
at FSU's Top Taggart Field in Big Rapids.

Bulldog Bites: Ferris was a perfect
three-of-three in the red zone ..... The Bulldogs held possession
for 33:44 compared to 26:16 for the hosts ....... FSU spread the
ball around as 10 different offensive players had catches in the
game and six different players had at least three rushing attempts
apiece ..... Sophomore back Tyler
Thomas saw his first action of the season and had 36
rushing yards on eight attempts along with two catches for seven
yards ...... FSU's Mike Elias added an interception, two pass
breakups and four tackles to go with his TD return of the blocked
kick ........ Sophomore defensive end Jordan
Morgan blocked the field goal try that was returned by
Elias and also finished with a sack for a loss of 19 yards, a
breakup and a tackle for loss ........ Senior DT Jacob
Moreno contributed seven stops, two tackles for loss,
two breakups and a sack ......... FSU's 34 points were its most
since a 34-14 victory over Tiffin in week one of the 2009 season
........ The game began a stretch of four consecutive games against
Ohio-based schools for the Bulldogs.